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Nothing good can come from the phrase “Take your close off or else.” The University of California – San Diego is learning that first hard after controversy erupting over an art course that requires a nude final exam. The mother of a woman in the class claims that her daughter was forced to perform naked or else receive a failing grade.
The class, Visual Arts 104A: Performing the Self, has been taught by Associate Professor Ricardo Dominguez for the past 11 years. Speaking with local ABC station KGTV, Dominguez says he has never before received a complaint about the class. He also affirms that nudity is a requirement.
“At the very end of the class, we’ve done several gestures, they have to be nude gestures. The prompt is to speak about or do a gesture or create an installation that says, ‘what is more you than you are.'” Dominguez told KGTV.
A segment on KGTV shows that many students support the class.
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Via: www.youtube.com
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However, the chair of the visual arts department, Dr. Jordan Crandall, says students don’t actually have to be nude at all. According to Crandall, “There are many ways to perform nudity or nakedness. Summoning art history conventions of the nude or laying of one’s ‘traumatic’ or most fragile and vulnerable self. One can ‘be’ nude while being covered.”
Crandall also points out that the class is not required for graduation.
What would you do if you were in the class? What if your child was enrolled? Let us know what you think as this controversy swirls.
